Recently I was asked to speak at a Wealth Conference. An unusual platform for a health & fitness professional to find themselves on. Or is it?
Building wealth is important yes – but so is the having the health to enjoy it.
There are many reports and studies on multiple different health topics that would indicate that we are not ready to enjoy our health.
One example is a Deloitte report recently published that confirms that the cost of lack of movement to the NZ tax payer is: $2.3billion.
“We have this illusion that we are a sporting nation, so an active nation, the truth is we are not, we’re a sport-watching nation,” said Exercise New Zealand CEO Richard Beddie.
This comment surprised me. However, following some more research, I agree with it. The World Health Organisation activity guidelines are an hour a day for kids and 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a week or around 20 minutes a day for everyone else. The thing is, 93% of our kids and over 40% of adults don’t hit these targets, costing our health system $530 million a year.
The Deloitte report calculates if the Government made a once-in-a-lifetime investment of $2500 per inactive person to get them active, it would be made back in less than 12 months. And it’s projected that over 30 years, that $2500 investment would actually benefit the Government by $12,500 per person in healthcare savings.
How does a typical week look to you? Are you meeting the WHO guidelines? Does your organisation encourage you to stay active and look after your health as well as your safety?
Clearly personal responsibility is a factor but employers must ‘manage’ stress in the work place and Southern Cross surveys indicate it is sadly climbing rapidly.
Assets – Liabilities = Net Worth
As companies and individuals we are quick to manage our net worth and slow to manage our health.
We have clear metrics in place to manage our wealth, and we put in a great amount of time and effort to grow our wealth. What if we managed our health like we managed our wealth.
Would we be ready to enjoy our health? Here are some simple metrics you can put in place. Check in with yourself and rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 against the seven Peak Fitness Pillars of Health and Fitness below.
1 = Feeling poor and off your game
10 = Feeling great and ready to play
If your numbers are on the low side you need to put some more time in to building your health so that you can enjoy your wealth.
Sleep – Did you get enough?
Nutrition – Have you eaten well?
Hydration – Have you drunk enough water?
Movement – How much have you done?
Energy – How much have you got?
Body – How does it feel? Aches, pains, niggles?
Stress – How high or low is it?
As Paul Chek says “sooner or later health will become your number one priority”. I’d strongly recommend that you have a clear strategy and plan in place for your personal and company health so that you are not playing catch up with your health investment in the future.
The balance between health and wealth is a challenging one. Having the wealth to enjoy your health is important. However, without good health you will never get to enjoy your wealth.
Invest wisely.
